Nintendo files patent for “Massively Single-Playing Online Game”

By Stephany Nunneley

A US patent application filed by Nintendo earlier this year suggests the firm is interested in creating a “Massively Single-Playing Online Game,” or at the least owning the rights to the term.

Dug up by Gamespot, the application suggests such a game would have the player’s actions impacting other player’s environments and characters in the game, providing a game which is “dynamic, not-based on Al and not-pre-scripted like multiplayer games,” for those who don’t “want to ‘deal’ with other people, [and] appreciate the privacy it provides.”

An example used in the patent was how a game’s economy could be affected by player demand and scarcity of items, and another was given in relation to resources such as building materials. It was even suggested a player could “gossip” to an NPC, which would then pass it along to the next real player the NPC came into contact with.

Nintendo also tossed in the possibility of multiplayer through players friending one another.

The application was filed for “a home video game system such as the Nintendo Wii 3D video game system, a Nintendo DS or other 3D capable interactive computer graphics display systems.”

Wii 3D? Surely that’s some mistake, there?

We’ll ask.

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